Against Home Rule (1912) eBook

From this point of view St. George’s Channel
and the Irish Sea should be a means of communication,
constant and in every direction, between the two Islands,
and not a sort of boundary ditch to be deepened and
rendered difficult of passage.

If Ireland wishes to share England’s prosperity
she must not build up a wall against the credit, trade,
and special products of her richer sister. If
England wishes to have and to foster a magnificent
source of food supply, well and strategically secured
against continental foes, she also must do all that
can be done to encourage intercourse. To develop
traffic between Great Britain and Ireland is the policy
which both experience and theory point to as advantageous
to both countries; to subvert this policy and make
Ireland’s commerce local and self-sufficing,
seems to be the narrow and mistaken ideal of Nationalist
aspirations.

UNIONIST POLICY.

It follows that the Unionist Party must oppose any
plan for “nationalising” the Irish railways,
whether by the credit of the United Kingdom, or otherwise.
The policy we advocate is to be found in the Minority
Report of the Viceregal Commission, signed by Sir Herbert
Jekyll, Mr. W.M. Acworth, and Mr. John Aspinall,
not as politicians, but experts; and in the Report
of the Royal Commission on Canals and Inland Navigation
dealing with the question of canals and water transport
in Ireland.

In the case of railways, the aim should be to amalgamate
them into two or three large companies to standardise
as far as possible the light railways, and level them
in respect of gauge, gradients, works, and rolling
stock with the larger companies. Unquestionably
many of the smaller railways to be amalgamated, though
not light railways, need large expenditure for the
purpose of duplication of running lines, straightening
of curves, stations, stores, and conveniences, and
many extensions and cross-lines will also be needed
to connect them with the trunk lines, and to open
out districts now unprovided with railway facilities.
Many of these projects, though industrially remunerative
to Ireland and advantageous to England also as tapping
new sources of food supply, would not be, in strictness,
commercially remunerative in the sense of giving fair
return on capital over working expenses, and it is
idle to expect that private capital will ever be subscribed
for these purposes. They can only be undertaken
either directly by State funds, or by money provided
by the State, and lent to the large amalgamated lines
at low interest. This is the policy inaugurated
by Mr. Arthur Balfour, which has been of untold benefit
to many districts in Ireland. Probably a public
grant of, say, L2,000,000, and loanable money available
to the extent of L8,000,000, would largely solve the
problem. For the reasons already given it is
only by Imperial credit, and under the aegis of a
united Parliament and Government, that capital on this
large scale can be available for these purposes.